Okay, what this actually is, is a red wine tomato sauce with garlic, shallots, asparagus and Crimini mushrooms, over pasta. Here's the scoop:
-garlic
-2 shallots
-1 28oz can of stewed, whole, San Marzano tomatoes
-1 6oz can of tomato paste
-a small bunch of asparagus
-Crimini mushrooms
-roughly 1 cup red wine (I used a Merlot)
-basil
-parsley
-salt
-black pepper
-nutmeg
-olive oil
-butter
-noodles of choice
So in one big ol' sauce pan, I got the sauce going. I started with 8 cloves of minced garlic sauteing in olive oil, then I added in the asparagus cut into roughly 2 inch pieces (from the top not the stem). When they got going a little bit, and became fragrant, I added in the can of tomatoes, the tomato paste, and the red wine. This went for a little longer, and then I added some salt, pepper, nutmeg (be sparing, but make sure you can taste it), basil, and parsley. Then I set this to simmering for half an hour.
Pretty shortly after the sauce had been simmering, I diced two shallots and threw them into a separate skillet of olive oil and butter with two good-sized handfuls of mushrooms. When the shallots just began to sweat, and the mushrooms just began to get darker, I added them to the sauce, and let it all simmer for another half an hour.
Then I got my noodles boiling, waited for them to become al dente, mixed everything together, and bada bing, bada boom, you have yourself another fine plate of pasta.
This one was pretty good, and I'd recommend you give it a go should you have the ingredients available.
Alright, so the picture is a little blurry because it was taken with a camera phone, but this was some pretty damn fine pasta.
Here's the gist:
-your favorite noodles
-2 handfuls of Chanterelle mushrooms
-1 and a half handfuls of Shiitake mushrooms
-Unsweetened soy milk
-lots and lots of vegan butter
-olive oil
-white wine
-shallots
-garlic
-parsley
-salt and pepper
So I started by sauteing 1 big shallot (about the size of 2 normal shallots) and 2 cloves of garlic in both olive oil and butter. When the shallots get a little translucent, add close to a cup of soy milk, more butter, and probably 3/4 cup of white wine.
In a separate pan, saute both the shiitake's and chanterelle's in butter and olive oil, but not too much. When they look like they're starting to sweat out and change to a darker color, throw them into the sauce.
Now you should start boiling your noodles.
At this point its a waiting/balancing act. You need to watch your sauce (adding more butter or milk as you go along to maintain a really creamy consistency). When you are pretty sure the noodles are about done, throw a handful of fresh parsley into the sauce, along with some salt and black pepper (to taste, of course.)
Drain the pasta, toss it all together, top with a little more fresh parsley and nutritional yeast (or parmesan cheese) and bing, cherry vanilla, you've made yourself some damn fine pasta too. The sauce should be creamy, but also packed full of mushrooms. You want a super earthy, creamy, and buttery flavor.
So Jeremy and I were talking about how Mike needs to take his French Toast recipe and turn it into a Boston Cream Pie French Toast. Jeremy linked to a recipe that looked damn good on this blog. I looked over the site and found a recipe that would work with some stuff I had in my house and made this.
http://cakebatterandbowl.com/creamy-lemon-summer-squash-pasta.html
Though I did make some modifications and I'm posting my recipe here.
1 lbs whole wheat penne pasta
2 large yellow squashes, chopped
2 large zucchinis, chopped
1 package stir fry chicken
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
Juice and zest of 2 limes
6 oz greek yogurt
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
salt
pepper
olive oil
Cook the penne pasta like you know what you are doing.
Saute the squash and zucchini in olive oil and put aside until later.
In the same pan, saute the onions and in the last minute, add the garlic. Put these aside with the squash.
Cook up the chicken with a little more olive oil until brown.
About this time the pasta should be done. Drain it, and in the pot it was cooked in, add the chicken stock, yogurt, lime and basil. The original recipe said to add the cheese which I did and it just ended up get all clumpy and sticking to the spoon rather then getting creamy. I recommend adding the cheese at the very end to get good coverage. Instead you'll need to get the sauce creamy another way. You could make a roux and add that, or add the squash and zucchini and get some of the starch from them to help cream up the sauce.
Either way, mix the veggies and chicken and pasta all back together. Mix it up real good, and sprinkle on the cup of parmesan while stirring. I idea is to get the parmesean to stick on each piece of food rather then sticking to itself in one, maybe delicious, clump.
I added some more parmesan to my bowl to serve but it wouldn't have been necessary if the parmesan was creamy to start with.
I really enjoyed this pasta dish. I've had dishes similar with the veggies and cheese and creamy bits. But the addition of the lemon juice, or lime juice in my case, and the yogurt is really nice. It helped to bring out the saltiness of it all.
This is one of my favorite comfort foods. It's a recipe that my mom made often that I have modified a little. I think my mom's original recipe only had the macaroni and cheese, with a side of lil smokies and applesauce. I mix in the sausages, and added the veggies. I didn't for the picture, but I usually cover the top with applesauce. I know people think that is strange, but the sweet tang of applesauce goes great with the salty tang of cheese and sausage.
1 lbs macaroni
1 package beef cocktail sausages
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 small bag frozen peas
1 lbs medium to sharp cheddar, shredded
1 1/2 cup milk
3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
salt
pepper
Applesauce (not pictured)
Start a large pot of water boiling and add a good amount of salt to help cook and season the pasta.
In another pot (or microwave safe dish) start to make a roux. Melt the butter, add the flour, cook for a minute or so for the flour to 'brown'. Add the milk and keep heating and stirring often until it makes a thick sauce. Add salt and pepper and slowly add the cheese while mixing until you have a good thick cheesy sauce.
Meanwhile, heat the little sausages in the microwave on medium high power for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until plump.
When the salt water is boiling add the pasta and cook. About a minute before the macaroni is done, add the broccoli and peas and let it come to a boil. Drain the water. Return the pasta to the pot, mix in the cheese sauce, and sausages. Mix it up real good.
Serve with a few spoonfuls of applesauce on top. Eat. Get fat.
So my roommate, Michelle, bought some stuff for spaghetti puttanesca, but she has been working a lot recently so I asked if I could make it. It is a real simple recipe. If you ever find yourself with a tin (or two) of anchovies, capers, and olives, this is the dish you want to make.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tin anchovies (or two if you want it to be rich and salty), drained
1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
Small can of black olives, diced
3 Tablespoons capers
32 oz Marinara, or crushed/diced tomatoes (maybe more if you want more sauce)
Black pepper
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley (optional if you have it. I didn't.)
1 lbs Angel Hair pasta
salt
In a large saute pan, saute the garlic, anchovies and red peppers in the olive oil. Make sure the garlic is all soft, the anchovies should become a past (if not mash them around with a spoon or spatula), and use enough red pepper to make sure you can get some heat. Puttanesca is suppose to be spicy, yeah. Then just dump in the olives, capers, tomatoes, and black pepper. I let this simmer for about an hour with a top on it so it didn't reduce too far down. If you don't have a top, just add water to keep the consistency nice.
With the pasta, I put a good 1/2 cup of salt in the water before it started to boil. This makes some damn good pasta. Give it a shot.
If you have the parsley, put it in right before mixing it with the pasta. I mixed this all up and put some good Parmesan on top to serve.
In the pic above, you can also see some nice crusty bread. I was pretty pleased with this so I'm including it in the post. The bread was a small loaf of artisan bread from the store. I took a few Tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and sauteed up some garlic. I then spread that garlic oil on the bread and put it out on a pan. I topped it with a good bit of fresh ground black pepper, Parmesan, and baked it in the oven at 400 for 5 minutes. I then topped with some fresh chopped basil. Good stuff.
